Trouble with the Winter
by Kayryn
Summary: The heating in the palace breaks.... Clarisse/Joseph


**Trouble with the Cold**

_by:_ Kayryn

_Disclaimer:_ Cabot's and Walt's, may he rest in peace. Not mine. Never was, never will be.

_Rated:_ uhh… first time with the new rating system. K  
_Timeline:_ After PD2.  
_A/N: Big thanks to tayryn for betareading _

* * *

It was a cold winter day in Genovia. One of the coldest Clarisse could remember experiencing and certainly the coldest that winter. The former Queen sat in her office behind her desk and shivered. She wondered why it was getting so chilly in her usually warm office. She'd already checked the windows once to make sure the servants hadn't left them open by accident. Clarisse picked up the phone to call Charlotte but to her surprise the phone was mute. Frowning, she decided that it was one of those days again. Thankfully it was almost over as the watch on her wrist told her it was nearing nine o'clock. Shaking her head Clarisse opened yet another file and started to look over the documents inside, assured that whatever the problem, the staff knew of it and was already taking care of it.

Some fifteen minutes later, though, Clarisse wondered if it was just her imagination or if the room was actually getting even colder. As the room grew colder, Clarisse decided she needed to get moving. Perhaps the heating was just off in her office and not the rest of the palace as well, so it was possible the staff didn't know that her office was turning into an igloo. Folding away the papers she'd been working on, Clarisse got up from behind the desk and made her way to the door. Only to find it didn't budge. Trying again, this time more forcefully, Clarisse still wasn't able to open the door.

"Oh, this is just…!"

She walked back to her desk and picked up the phone but it was still dead.

Making her way back to the doors, Clarisse banged on, calling for Charlotte and Joseph. When she got no answer she pounded harder. No one answered.

She leaned against the door and pondered what else she could try. The doors opened to the hallway and Clarisse wondered if she could push them open. She doubted it, but at this point she was ready to try just about anything. Bracing herself for a jolt, Clarisse tried to give the door a good push but to no avail. She sighed and was startled to notice she could see her breath in the air. The temperature in the room had dropped even further and the realization made her shiver. She was truly beginning to get cold. Searching around she saw an old shawl draped over a chair. Wrapping it tightly around herself she looked out of the windows in hopes of seeing someone. Not that she expected to. It was nearly ten o'clock and no one in their right mind would be out this late in a weather they were experiencing.

Suddenly there was a knock on the doors.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, darling," Joseph's voice carried through the doors.

"Joseph, the doors… I can't get them to open."

She heard her husband trying to open them but they remained stubbornly closed.

"I can't open them either. It must be the cold affecting the wood."

"Well, is there anything you can do? If you must know it's getting quite cold in here."

"I know. The heating broke down about an hour ago..."

"An hour?"

"That's why I came to look for you. I was wondering why you hadn't come to our rooms. I tried calling you but the cold also affected some of the more delicate things such as the phones and computers, which is why none of those are working either."

"What about security?" Clarisse asked as her thoughts turned to her granddaughter, nightmarish thoughts flashing through her head.

On the other side of the doors, Joseph fought his own nightmares of some maniac attacking his wife while the security was compromised. Reminding himself of the facts he'd been going over in his head a hundred times already he reassured her, "The gates were all frozen closed when the electricity went out. And the safety mechanisms lock everything down if anything affects it. But just in case though, Shades has placed extra guards outside Mia's rooms and ours. So everything is under control."

Nodding to herself, Clarisse was satisfied that Mia was safe and well protected.

"Clarisse, I think I should go and get some help getting the doors open. We need some tools to open them."

"Sounds good," she said, even though she loathed the thought of staying alone in the cold room without her Joseph on the other side.

"I won't be long. We'll get you out of there in no time and then you can warm up in front of the fire."

"Now there's a happy thought," Clarisse said hoping that she could see him instead of the wooden obstacle between them.

"I'll go now. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"All right," Clarisse acknowledged. Looking around the room she sighed. "Not like I'm going anywhere," she said, more to herself than the man already halfway down the corridor.

It was some fifteen minutes later when Clarisse heard the commotion outside the troublesome doors. Wearily she rose from the couch she'd been snuggled on in a very un-Queen like position to keep warm.

"Clarisse?"

"Joseph?"

"We're opening the doors now. Just a minute more," he told her.

True to his word, after only a few moments, and plenty of noise, the doors flung open. Clarisse stared in surprise when she saw Shades standing right outside her office with a crowbar in hand. Before she could say a word though, she was surrounded by her husband, granddaughter and assistant. Thankful for the warm fur coat Joseph helped her put on, she assured them all she would be quite fine even if she was a little cold at the moment.

"It's nothing that a cup of tea or two and a warm fire won't cure," Clarisse said as they exited her office.

It was obvious that the three weren't convinced as they kept swarming around her. Stopping in her tracks, Clarisse turned around to see Shades still standing by the doors, now looking at the damage he'd done to the age-old twin doors.

"Shades," she waited for the burly man to face her before flashing him a grateful smile. "Thank you."

The security chief merely bowed his head in reply, but had it not been so dim in the hallway they would all have been able to see the faint blush spreading across his cheeks.

Before continuing on her way, the former Queen turned to her assistant. "Charlotte, before you return to your rooms, would you be a dear and stop by the kitchen? See if Cook would be willing to make some tea, and bring it to our suite?"

"Yes, ma'am. Would that be for two or three?"

"Now that grandma's been saved from the clutches of her office, I think I'll be heading for bed," Mia said, as she held back a yawn and glanced at her grandmother. "If that's okay?"

"Of course it is, dear," Clarisse said as she saw Charlotte curtsy before the young woman disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. "You go ahead and get some sleep. You have a meeting with the prime minister of Finland tomorrow, am I right?"

Starting to walk towards their rooms again, Mia nodded. "Yes, first thing in the morning. The Foreign Minister of Austria in the afternoon and our own Minister of Culture in between," Mia listed as she rolled her eyes.

Clarisse chuckled as she kissed the girl gently and gave her a hug. "Thank you for coming to see me though."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Grandma," Mia said as she retuned the hug. "Goodnight Grandma. Love you."

"Goodnight, darling. I love you, too."

After bidding Joseph goodnight as well, Mia entered her own rooms while Joseph and Clarisse continued down the hall towards their own.

They entered their rooms and at once Joseph went to put more wood in the fireplace. The fire had been burning ever since he had first started to feel the chills. Clarisse said she'd be right back and disappeared somewhere inside her notable wardrobe. Emerging a few moments later she had on warm and comfortable looking flannel pajamas. Joseph beckoned for her to come and sit down on the couch in front of the fire. Unable, and unwilling, to resist the call of both the fire and the man before her, she did.

Snuggling together on the couch they both admitted to not remembering the temperature ever dropping quite so low in Genovia before. Certainly they had winter with snow and ice but this was the first time the temperature had dropped so low that the effects were clearly seen and felt.

A soft knock on the door was followed by Joseph's invitation for the person to come in. As they'd guessed it was one of the maids from the kitchen. She was carrying a tea tray. Joseph was attempting to sit up straighter but Clarisse was having none of it. She was far too comfortable to care about decorum at the moment.

"Thank you, Melanie. You can leave the tea on the table here," Clarisse directed the young woman.

Melanie curtsied and left the room as soon as she'd placed the tray on the table.

Clarisse finally gave in and got up to pour tea for herself and her husband. Languidly they sipped the hot liquid, enjoying its warming effect while they watched the flames dance.

Nearly an hour later, well after the fire has been reduced to embers, the couple finally moved over to the bed where they lay down in each others arms, content to keep each other warm against the cold of the winter's night.

The end


End file.
